Mike Gillislee no longer has to work his way out of the shadows of Chris Rainey and Jeff Demps.
With the Gators’ former running back tandem focusing on careers away from Florida football, Gillislee, a senior, finally has a chance to step into the spotlight as he entered Wednesday’s first spring practice atop the depth chart at running back for the Gators.
“Mike Gillislee is not a very vocal guy but is going to be a yeoman, work hard, show up with his lunch pail every day,” Florida coach Will Muschamp said. “He’s that type of player for us.”
That blue-collar, working-man’s ethic is something Florida will need entering the 2012 season — particularly in the backfield, where the Gators finished 73rd in the nation in rushing offense, and eighth in the Southeastern Conference by averaging a paltry 143 yards per game on the ground.
Gillislee was Florida’s third-leading rusher last season, racking up 328 yards and two scores while battling for time behind Rainey and Demps and fighting through an ankle injury that hampered him for a month in the middle of the season.
With Rainey and Demps sharing the load as Florida’s featured backs, the Gators’ rushing attack was often limited to outside runs, with inside plays called on occasion to try and keep defenses honest. The running styles of Rainey and Demps were better suited for breaking runs to the outside and letting the duo try to outrun defenders. Combined with the implementation of a new offense under Muschamp and then-offensive coordinator Charlie Weis, this hampered UF’s options in the run game. It also limited Gillislee’s time on the field, as he averaged 5.1 carries per game.
“We tried to get Mike involved in some games, but what was hard at times, especially being in the first year of everything changing was being able to have an inside running package, but also an outside running package that fit what we were doing with the other guys,” Muschamp said. “I feel like if we were further along with what we were doing, we would’ve been able to do that, but we certainly were not at the time.
“Early in the year, we probably shoulda, coulda, woulda gotten him more involved.”
As UF attempts to add more inside runs and the power running game it lacked last year, the 5-foot-11, 201-pound Gillislee will see an expanded role, leading a trio of larger running backs that includes little-used redshirt sophomore Mack Brown and incoming freshman Matt Jones.
“You tailor things around what they do best, obviously, and the guys we got coming in are a lot like those guys,” Muschamp said. “They’re bigger backs that run the ball north and south and get downhill in the running game.”
Kickoff rules change: The NCAA last month approved of a proposed rules change for kickoffs, moving the ball up five yards to the 35-yard line and moving touchbacks from the 20-yard line out to the 25.
The change is designed to increase touchbacks and cut back on injuries on kickoff collisions, but Muschamp doesn’t think the change will have the desired effect.
“The takeoffs don’t matter,” Muschamp said. “This rule committee — collisions happen 40 yards down the field. If you take off from five yards or 10, that doesn’t matter. Do I make sense? I mean, c’mon.”
Contact Tom Green at tgreen@alligator.org.
Senior running back Mike Gillislee is in line for more carries this season following the departures of Jeff Demps and Chris Rainey. He averaged just 5.1 carries per game for the Gators a year go.
